Challenging Dutch holocaust education: towards a curriculum based on moral choices and empathetic capacity

Ethics and Education 3 (1):57-74 (2008)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

We analyse the way in which the Holocaust is taught in The Netherlands, with an emphasis on critically examining the content of secondary school textbooks used to teach Dutch students about the history of the Holocaust. We also interview Dutch educators, government officials and academics about the state of Dutch Holocaust education. Our findings indicate that Dutch students are underexposed to the Holocaust and lack basic knowledge and conceptual understanding of it. Fundamental concerns regarding the civic obligations of citizens in a democracy and basic principles of human rights that are raised by the history of the Holocaust in The Netherlands are often ignored or examined superficially, sometimes because of ambivalence about the extent of Dutch involvement in the genocide of Dutch Jewry. Little attention is paid to the complex moral choices that Dutch citizens faced during the Second World War and the life-or-death implications such decisions had for Dutch Jews. Finally, Jewish history and culture and the history of European anti-Semitism are rarely addressed in textbooks and history lessons about the Holocaust, undermining efforts to sensitise students to the implications of the Holocaust for The Netherlands and for Europe as a whole. In our conclusion, we offer some models of Holocaust education that could significantly improve the quality and content of Dutch Holocaust education

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Analytics

Added to PP
2010-07-12

Downloads
33 (#419,244)

6 months
3 (#447,120)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

References found in this work

Education After Auschwitz.Theodor W. Adorno - 2020 - Філософія Освіти 25 (2):82-99.
Facing History and Ourselves.[author unknown] - 1992 - Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 9 (2):12-13.

Add more references